He dreamed of self-feeding solar house. So he built A-frame greenhouse home

Look down there, that's a nice. It says it's the biggest lake. Biggest lake in where? In Sweden. We should be able to see it soon. It's in the trees though. Someone's building a greenhouse house. Is this another greenhouse house? That's not an A-frame, that's not it. That's freaking crazy. It's really pretty. Why is there another one? Idrum is the second generation house. So this is the first original house. Our youngest son is 23. He was about three years old when we started to plant this. So Anders built all this log house. So he went to the forest with my brother and they cut down the woods like the trees. Anders' father made all the windows and the logs and the chimneys that goes through the greenhouse. You get a really nice temperature inside here. Yeah, it feels good. Down here it's like we have a big room. We put ceiling over so it doesn't get too hot in here. But it's glass there so we can take it away in the autumn when you need the light. But now in the summer we love to be like a little cool. I like the water too, the sound. The bath and toilet water is cleaned in the cellar and goes through all the bathys giving the nutrition. And then it comes out here. So this is very clean, this water. It is sort of a lifestyle to live here. Because you do feel like you're trapped in with nature a bit, like you're catching butterfly. I'm using model tools. It's not so easy to grow apricots, nectarines, and this is just full. Yeah, it's great. Thank you. Bye. No, it's not the right house. That's their house. We got a bit lost. So we just keep going, I guess. I started to build a log house for my family, but it was raining all the time. I was looking for protection. So I was thinking of the greenhouse as a building protection first. But then I read the book that Bengt Warner wrote and understand that it would be like moving the house to Italy or Spain. And that was very attractive for us in Scandinavia. So we started out early, like 20 years ago. This house is really probably the first one I've seen that feels really built just to be inside of a greenhouse. Yeah, this is more integrated. It's pretty fantastical. And the shape itself. I mean, to even do this kind of thing as an A-frame. That wasn't our idea at the beginning, but the land slopes in all directions. So we're actually at the top of a small mountain. We were discussing the mountain along with the shape of the trees. I said, if we would build something like this, it would be too much, a bit aggressive. But if we imitate the shape of the trees, it will melt in but still stand out. We made this house off-grid. So it's totally off-grid. The house is like a collector. So it just collects sunshine for plants or for humans. So all the energy that hits the house should pass through or make electricity. You don't want to lose anything. No, we are okay to lose something for views. If we don't plant things, we can see the moose. This patio here, you start to enter the house, but you're not really in the house yet. So you walk inside, but you're still a little bit outside and you're getting closer to the house, but you're not really sure where you are. My children say we live in a wood house inside a glass house. The house is one big sight. The idea is when you enter the house, you see fruit. You have a lot of grapes growing. I mean, the figs and the grapes. It's really the plants of the Mediterranean. We like to have the Barcelona climate. In Scandinavia, it's cold and winter. So this greenhouse gives us like a fifth season. If it's sunny, many more days with temperature that reach above 20 Celsius, which is what we think is summer. Humans and tomatoes like the same kind of climate zone. So if cucumbers and tomatoes like it, probably you will like. If we have a house inside the greenhouse, the next step will be how can we use that in a beneficial way to serve us? Because if you have plants, they need watering. Where do we find water? Ah, we have wastewater with water and nutrients. So it's like the next natural step to combine those things. Is this kale? Yeah. Huge. Is this because it's in this greenhouse? Well, all the wastewater from the house is passing through this plant wall inside this and trickles down. What's inside here? Volcanic stone, which is part of the mix. So it's like a biological treatment system where microorganism and earthworms. So there's worms inside here. Yes. So the water is filtering through and so it's passing down and then it's going to one of those plant beds and then it's going from plant bed to plant bed to plant bed to plant bed to plant bed to plant bed to plant bed and gets filtered and watering the plants. It's pretty self-sufficient because the water is always flowing through. Filtering down this plant wall and then it goes to the plant bed that's on the corner there and then to the next and to the next and to the next and we have like an inspection so that we can check the water level in the system. But you don't need to, it sounds like. No. And it's on a slope, is that why it's coming down? Yeah, it's going to move by itself. It sounds like it's pretty self-sufficient. Once a year, take out some soil and then you put some more rock. It's like moving in the system. You're growing soil. Yeah. So the house in a way is producing food, green and also soil. The roots from the plants are reaching the water and they take the nutrients and the water. It's not waste. No. So it's resources. So you need all these plants for filtering. They're actually needed. Yeah. Okay. And we need them. So it's like a symbiosis, like nature, like in a way inspired by a farm, the way it worked before we were so specialized. If we see a bad branch or something, we just take it out. That's easier if you live in a garden. Fix a little bit and take away what's bad and maybe plant a new plant. So this year, what's new for us is corn. So it doesn't have to be considered as heavy work to go and work in the garden because you're already there. It's a part of the house. It's a part of the house. It's like you're part of your living room, your everyday space. Because you're staying the night, it's good to know to cool the house. We use the doors as ventilation so that the wind can pass through. You decide what temperature you like, but some people close those doors, but leave the top floor doors open. Of course, you can do this automatically by sensors and all kinds of technical systems, but we tried on this house to make it in a way low-tech. So if you can just open a door, it's better, or window. Try not to complicate too much. So it's just one long room. Yeah. So you get like in contact with nature. And everything's sort of hidden because this is the kitchen, but you've hidden everything here. We just stayed very relaxing with wood because we're in the wood. So it's just solid wood. Simple. It's not a big house. It's just, in summer, it's a big house because then you're just moving out where you want to be. But in winter, it gets smaller and in a way cozy. This is a stove you can use to cook in winter because then we have less electricity, so we use stored photosynthesis. We have farmers here that live on selling wood, so that's very accessible. And it also gives an unbeatable, nice feeling in winter. And you can make some bread as well. And that also heats the hot water. The solar, you didn't use panels. No, it's integrated in the glass facade. For this house, for this shape, it's good to use the shape to have the solar panels at the top and to let the sun into the plants. But it's also easy to wash and clean. And it's made in a way that you can, if one of them breaks, it's quite easy to change them. I was noticing also from here, you really see the chimney. So you're seeing all the parts of the house that heats and cools and powers the house here? In a way, you can say that solar panels powers the house and the chimney from the wood burner heats the house at winter. But we also have a small shed with a generator that we run on biodiesel because the battery park is not big enough to store energy from summer to winter yet. Now a lot of battery technology developed for cars. It's good to have the batteries quite light. But when they start using sodium, the batteries can be cheaper, but they will be heavier. But that doesn't matter for houses. One thing that is different from my house and some other houses, it's all made of wood. Oh, right. All the joinery and everything. Yeah. So it's also wood. So it's not a steel frame. You don't ever see that with an industrial greenhouse. They did like that in the 60s and 70s, but they had a problem with rot. So how do you do that? It's treated in vinegar and under pressure and heat. And then the chemical molecules inside the wood change a little bit and the fungus doesn't recognize it as wood. So the rot fungus doesn't eat it. It's really vinegar. Yeah. Even using the wood, which I find so attractive. Is that so much more difficult? Yeah. We've been using some time to figure out how to do it because it must be able to move a little bit and still be quite waterproof and withstand storms and also endurance. We have to make it safe for 50 years. On this house, you've got three sides that's greenhouse. The north side is in a way closed. It's hard to grow things there. On this side, we have the wall from the house. We can't really use the sun to the plants. And in the morning, they are working. We take everything we can get. And you've kind of put windows in between solar. Yeah. So this is one bedroom. The wall is sloping. So if you lay in the bed, you can see the sky. In a way, you're in contact with the universe. It's getting hotter further up. You're going to feel it's getting more hot when we walk outside. Not so bad. Oh yeah, it's warmer. So usually say we have Italy on the first floor and Egypt on the third floor. So you can choose what you like. These stairs are great. I'll learn. Yeah. One of the design ideas is to make a house that's both calm and interesting. And that's like a balance. So you wanted it to be, I mean, this almost feels like a pirate walk. Is that the interesting part? Yeah, it's a part, but it functions as ventilation for the top floor. So the wind can pass through. We were thinking of just having a window, but it's good to have big ventilation. So we made the door. In Sweden, we call this a French balcony. You know what they say in the US, it's a Juliet balcony. Okay. It's mainly for ventilation, but it also makes the house a little bit exciting or interesting. There's nothing practical, right? It's just a straight shot. I mean, it's just a narrow geometry up here. It's interesting. But you get some shade from the solar panels. So they work in two ways. I asked the company if they could make solar panels shaped like leaves. I still think they are laughing at it. They said no. But maybe in the future. So this area, just to kind of relax. On the drawings, when we made the drawings for the house, we called it yoga terrace. But when we talked to the municipality, it changed to service area. Service area for the chimney sweeper to check the solar panels to open for ventilation. But you're not allowed to stay here because it's only one way down. So according to Swedish building regulations, you need two ways down. If there should be a fire here, you need another way to escape. So now we're on the service area. Imagine a yoga terrace. We have another way to escape, but it's not like official regulation. There is a wooden stair over here. So it's possible to escape, but it's not like the approval way. We have some ventilation windows that's automatically open. And is this another window then for ventilation? I'm assuming the same. Yeah, it's the same French balcony. You need obviously both sides. Yeah, to let the wind pass through. How about this side, the view? This is just, you just see a part of the lake. The place is quite calm. And even though you see through the house, you understand the house, that's calm. But it's still exciting what's behind that wall or what's happening here. When I go down, I walk this way. The good thing about walking this way is that it's easier to get room for your knees. This is really different. This is like a house. This is like a normal house inside the greenhouse. We just put some nice windows facing the lake, but otherwise it's a normal room. It's fun though, because it's a view of interior. Yeah, what is it? When you live in the house and get used to it, normally the eye are focusing on something outside. You're looking at the tree or the water or the bird or the moose. You don't really think about the space in between. You're not really looking at the next greenhouse. Well, because you don't really see it. I mean, you actually see right through. If you look when they line up with the tree, it could be like the trees. It fits, doesn't it? Yeah. We look at the bathroom because it's part of the system. It's part of the system. But the toilet is conventional in the sense it's a flush toilet. Yeah. So then it goes down. It goes down to a special pump. There it gets mixed, so it gets a nutritious solution. So we can serve it to the plant wall for the microorganism to take over and serve it to the plant roots. Here you see the top of the wall, right? It's quite thick. Yeah. Because it's filled with rock. Yeah. And the worms, no maintenance on worms. Yeah, they are really super... Self-sufficient. Yeah. You wouldn't know you had a wall filled with your waste and worms and everything, right? It looks simple, but it's a lot of research and work behind. Many years. We're also doing a lot of tests with certification of the system to make it more accessible for people because when we build houses, it's a bit different from other houses. So we're really looking into all those systems, how to build a greenhouse, how to make an eco-cycle system, and to get it certified so that it will be easier for the authorities to approve. Then it will be easier for the concept to evolve or run because the authorities can check all the boxes. Comparing your greenhouse house to this house, which outcome you like better? I really like this greenhouse that is made of wood. Oh, that's like a feeling that you can touch. That's a very big difference to metal frame or aluminium frame. The idea is to have the grapes covering the pergola so that you have a green roof and get shade. And then the leaves are falling off at autumn when you want the light to get in. And you get some work to get the leaves out, but then you get paid by the grapes. I know there are some examples also from the other countries. And you have the earth ships with a glass facade and some kind of reuse of water. So probably the ideas are back from the monks or something. And the farmers, they are constantly thinking of how to use the resources they have. So it's natural for humans. We want to run the house to make it more like a living symbiosis with the people that stays here and lives here. Because we all need food. So it's super close by. We live in the food. You know, it's seeing houses like this that sort of make you wonder why more people don't do this. Before it was just unusual. And it's a big, every normal house is also a big investment, mortgage at the bank. And they are conservative. To prove the value of the house on the market, it takes maybe decades for the banks. But now it's been here for some decades. So I think it's getting more approved. And people are not that nervous anymore, because there are more houses. When you first started building your house 20 years ago, neighbors were... Well, they didn't say to me, but I think they were thinking that we were a little bit crazy. Maybe we were, but it made sense. So maybe we have earned the extra cost for the greenhouse by now, because it's producing. So it gives us energy, food. We have no bill on this house. We buy some local wood, we buy some biodiesel for the generator, and that's it. So in the long term, this will be a house that gives back. So it's beneficial for humans as the animal human. They say that people want to see to something, attend something, to look after something that gives you meaning. And garden is something that gives back a lot. Every human is a great resource. We are producing nutrients. Every living thing is a resource for the next level in the system. And we are like origin from nature. So this is like a natural habit for us. So this is just an example of how can you build, how can you combine things and traditions. The whole is the important thing, what you can get out of it, of a house that's contributing instead of taking. And then it could be designed in different ways, for different parts of the world, or different needs. I think it's been done in thousands of years. This is just what's possible now to combine those greenhouse and houses.